Coronavirus- Is it Contagious? Coronavirus symptom Covid-19

Preface: The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the corona virus as a pandemic. Corona virus is a very subtle but effective virus. The corona virus is 900 times smaller than human hair, but its infection is spreading rapidly around the world.

What is corona virus?
Corona virus (Covid-19) belongs to a family of viruses whose infection can cause problems ranging from a cold to breathlessness. This virus has never been seen before. The virus infection started in December in Wuhan, China. According to WHO, fever, cough, shortness of breath are its symptoms. So far no vaccine has been made to stop the virus from spreading.

Coronavirus Symptoms

According to the WHO, the most common symptoms of coronavirus (Covid-19) are fever, tiredness and a dry cough. Some patients may also have a running nose, sore throat, nasal congestion and aches and pains or diarrhoea. Some people report losing their sense of taste and/or smell. About 80% of people who get Covid-19 experience a mild case and recover without needing any special treatment.

The WHO says about one in six people, become seriously ill. The elderly and people with underlying medical problems like high blood pressure, heart problems or diabetes, or chronic respiratory conditions, are at a greater risk of serious illness from coronavirus (Covid-19).

As this is viral pneumonia, antibiotics are of no use. The antiviral drugs we have against flu will not work, and there is currently no vaccine. Recovery depends on the strength of the immune system.

How Covid-19 spreads? Is Coronavirus contagious?
The virus is thought to spread mainly from person-to-person.

• Between people who are in close contact with each other
• Through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes.

These droplets can enter the mouths or noses of people who are nearby or can be inhaled into the lungs.

Can someone spread the virus without being sick?

• People are thought to be most contagious when they are most symptomatic
• It may also spread before people show symptoms; there have been reports of this occurring with this new coronavirus, but this is not  the main way the virus spreads.

Spread from contact with contaminated surfaces or objects

It may be possible that a person can get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.

How easily the virus spreads

How easily a virus spreads from person-to-person can vary. Some viruses are highly contagious (spread easily), like measles, while other viruses do not spread as easily. Another factor is whether the spread is sustained, spreading continually without stopping.

The virus that causes COVID-19 seems to be spreading easily and sustainably in the community (“community spread”) in some affected geographic loacations.

How many people have been affected?

As of 30 March, more than 720,000 people have been infected in more than 150 countries, according to the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

There have been over 34,000 deaths globally. Just over 3,000 of those deaths have occurred in mainland China, where the coronavirus was first recorded in the city of Wuhan. Italy has been hardest hit, though, with over 10,000 fatalities, and Spain has seen more than 6,800 deaths. The US now has more confirmed cases than any other country. Many of those who have died had underlying health conditions, which the coronavirus complicated. More than 150,000 people are recorded as having recovered from the coronavirus.